Norway’s reigning world 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm will branch out at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships which begin tomorrow (6) by doubling up in the 400m flat.
“You only live once,” he said at today’s pre-event press conference here with a characteristic grin. “So I’m going for it.”
The 22-year-old former decathlete, who rose to prominence last season, has endured a strangely testing season where his own steady improvement has been overshadowed by the dramatic emergence of Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba.
The naturalised Mauritanian, also 22, has won the first six 400m hurdles races on the IAAF Diamond League circuit this summer. He also became only the second athlete in history after world record-holder Kevin Young to better 47 seconds with a world-leading 46.98 in Paris on 30 June.
Warholm, present in the last five of those races, does arrive on a winning note after prevailing in the London Diamond League in a national record of 47.65, also a European U23 record.
Asked if doubling up to do a 400m flat in Berlin had always been part of his plans, Warholm responded: “I ran a 400m, I went home, grew some new balls, thought about it for a second and it was like – this can be fun. I’ve done some doubles before. You only live once – so I’m going for it.”
Warholm’s most audacious double was at the 2015 European U20 Championships in Eskilstuna, Sweden where he won silver medals in both the 400m and decathlon. He also raced six times in four days at the European U23 Championships in Bydgoszcz last July, winning silver in the 400m flat before gold in the 400m hurdles in a championship record of 48.37.
One of his major rivals sat alongside him in Berlin’s Royal Porcelain Manufactory – Britain’s 23-year-old Matthew Hudson-Smith, gold medallist in the 4x400m at the 2014 European Championships in Zurich. He tops this season’s European lists with 44.63.
Looking ahead to his potential meeting with the 400m hurdler sitting alongside him, Hudson-Smith reflected: “I’ve known Karsten since 2016. We have competed at European junior level. He’s just as crazy as me. He’s a championship performer. I’m a championship performer. Let’s see what happens…”
Matthew Hudson-Smith (@mattonthefloor) leads the European lists in the 400m but how does he rate Karsten Warholm's chances in the event? #EC2018 #TheMoment pic.twitter.com/ejSXh8C28V
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 5, 2018
Warholm, who will receive an automatic berth into the semifinal of both the 400m and 400m hurdles by virtue of being ranked inside the top-12 in both events, has a philosophical attitude to the way his circumstances have changed in the 400m hurdles this year.
“Last year I won the world title and had a best of 48.22,” he said. “This year I have been running more than half-a-second faster. That shows me that I’ve done extraordinary work and so has my coach in taking us along. But this season someone took even bigger steps.
“That is what the magic is with track and field. There are always new opponents, you have got to stay hungry all the time, there will always be someone fighting to take your place.
“Now in Berlin I’m not running against those guys. But at the same time I love racing against them, because they help me raise the bar and perform better.
“Of course when you win the world championships there will always be some pressure and expectation. But I think that is an advantage as well. Pressure is one of those things that can make you perform very well. I like the energy that gives me. “
Asked if he felt he had been changed by winning the world title in London last year, he responded: “I think I’m mostly the same as before, just a young guy that loves to run. Mostly it’s the same, but I’m a bit more experienced now. I’ve been running in championships and doing good, so hopefully I’m even more prepared than I was last year.”
Hudson-Smith’s personal best of 44.48 is just 0.12 slower than the British record Iwan Thomas set at Birmingham in 1997 – but it’s not a subject he likes to dwell on. “My coach and I have been talking about it,” he said. “But every time I try for the record I always overthink it. If it comes, it comes.”
Asked to comment on the fact that Britain has sent its biggest team to these championships, including many younger athletes, Hudson-Smith responded: “It’s nice having a young crowd of people coming through. British athletics is looking in good shape for the next couple of years. I’m 23 and I remember four years ago when I was in their situation coming into the Zurich European Championships.”
Croatia’s two-time world and Olympic discus champion Sandra Perkovic has won four European titles. And getting another is of the motivations that keeps her extraordinary athletics career moving forward.
“I have the opportunity in my life to do what I love the most - discus throwing. I enjoy every minute of my training. I have been world number one for so many years, and I am here in Berlin eight years after winning by first European gold in Barcelona.
“There is no bigger motivation for me than to become the first athlete to win five European golds in one event.”
It has already been a standout year for Croatian sport with the national football team getting all the way through to the final of the World Cup in Russia. Perkovic was assiduously following their progress and is hoping her nation’s attention will turn to the discus in Berlin next week.
“I am so proud of our guys, they did an amazing result at the World Cup. There has never been a greater result in our country’s history,” she said.
“I think the most important thing the world of sport does is connecting people and we were supporting each other and nothing else - Croatia only has 4.5 million people and half-a-million people were waiting for them at the main square. I think the Croatian fans will cheer for me like they cheered for the football team.”